The Effect of Whole Body Vibration Training on Neuromuscular Property in Individuals With Ataxia

Chang Gung University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Spinocerebellar Ataxia

Treatments: Other: Whole body vibration training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01983631

100-1184B

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Cerebellum contains ten percent of the total volume of the brain and receives brain, spinal cord and vestibular sensory input. The organization of vestibular and somato-sensory afferent informations are also reported to be impaired in patients with cerebellum dysfunctions. Ataxia and impaired balance control are common symptoms in individuals with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). Previous studies have shown that patient with cerebellar damage are usually agonist and antagonist muscle coordination problem. Past studies also found the regulation of reciprocal Ia inhibition was impaired in patients with spinaocerebellar ataxia. In chronic phase, weakness might be developed due to deconditioned. All deficits mentioned above might lead to a decrease functional ability. Therefore, increasing somato-sensory and vestibular input, normalizing the modulation of recriprocal inhibition, and improve muscle strength might be able to improve the functional abilities of individuals with SCA.

Recently, whole body vibration (WBV) has been trained for health groups. Studies showed that WBV training were able to improve muscle strength, balance control, and functional ability. However, there is no evidence showed that whether the whole body vibration training can affect the brain and spinal cord for the regulation of neural circuits. Whether also can affect for maximal voluntary contraction and improve central fatigue. No previous studies that whole body vibration training for SCA.

Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the intracortical facilitation and inhibition, reciprocal Ia inhibition, low frequency depression, maximal voluntary contraction, interpolated twitch technique to compare the different between the SCA and health subject. Also to investigate the short term and long term effect of WBV.

Enrollment: 17 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Clinical diagnosis of spinocerebellar ataxia

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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17 participants in 4 patient groups

WBV group

Experimental group

Description:

Stage 1: Short-term Whole body vibration(3 minutes in half-squatting position)

Treatment:

Other: Whole body vibration training

Non-WBV group

No Intervention group

Description:

Stage 1 : Controlled group

training group

Experimental group

Description:

Stage 2: Long-term WBV training (3 sessions per week for 4 weeks)

Treatment:

Other: Whole body vibration training

non-training group

No Intervention group

Description:

Stage 2: Controlled group